Fencing is often utilized in a variety of situations to define property boundaries, or to keep people, animals, and or objects inside or out of a property. Conventional fencing is generally provided in two forms: two-way viewable (where individuals on each side of the fencing can see through it) or non-viewable (where individuals on each side of the fencing cannot see through it, as in the case of privacy fencing.)
Similarly, screen and divider panels are conventionally provided to be non-viewable, to block individuals on either side of the screen from seeing clearly through to the other side. In some circumstances, one-way viewable screens or mirrors have been provided. In particular, one-way mirrors are occasionally provided in some department stores, nurseries, and witness questioning rooms so that the activities taking place inside the room can be observed from others outside that room, without the people in the room being observed being able to see their observers. One way see-through mirrors only work when the light condition on one side is substantially greater than the other. As will be readily appreciated, such one-way glass mirrors are rigid and fragile, rendering them useful only in specific environments such as along a rigid wall.
Other one-way viewable materials such as perforated vinyls, are designed for situations where the lighting conditions on the two sides of the material are quite different. (For example, such materials are typically used on building windows or automobile windows, where the light inside of the structure and adjacent to one side of the material would be dramatically different from that on the outside of the structure, adjacent to the other side of the material.) Those panel materials typically have a see through open area of about 30 to 50% comprising a plurality of relatively large openings (e.g. circular openings about 1 mm in diameter.) However, they do not provide proper one-way see through properties when lighting conditions on both sides are about the same.
Examples of such perforated vinyl, printed film and semitransparent metallic coatings on glass used to provide one-way see through (from a low light intensity side, and non-see through from high light intensity side) are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,925,437, 6,258,429 and 4,673,609. As noted previously, such materials do not provide one-way viewing when the lighting on both sides of the material is approximately the same.